


It’s raining outside, but you’re keeping me warm

by 42starsintheuniverse



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: #Dan Howell #Phil Lester #Valantines day #Happy ending, #a homophobic guy, #cute ending, #dont worry Dan cuts the bitch down, #fluff, #homophobia, #mentions and moderate description of anxiety, #swearing (I think? Idk I’m exhausted), Anxiety, M/M, Slurs, homophbic slurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-29 00:29:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17797628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/42starsintheuniverse/pseuds/42starsintheuniverse
Summary: Dan and Phil celebrate Valentine’s Day, but Phil doesn’t have the best time.Dan makes it up to him and shows Phil how much he loves him.





	It’s raining outside, but you’re keeping me warm

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone I have some (semi) important notes at the end so please read them! Also I actually wrote this last year and have been saving it for today so it’s not really my best work. Also it’s been a while since I posted here.

“Hey Dan! I’m going shopping.” Phil called, thudding down the stairs and tapping his pockets, doing the internal check list; wallet, phone, keys, did he need anything else?

 

Dan stepped out suddenly from the right passageway at the bottom of the stairs, almost making Phil trip down the last three in surprise.

“Wow Phil thanks for calling out and making it seem like something, actually important is happening.” Dan said, his tone was sarcastic, but he obviously meant this as a joke.

 

“Hey!” Phil admonished whacking Dans arm

“I’ll have you know I’m going out for something very important, perhaps to do with the certain date today.” Phil said, pointedly.

 

Dan rolled his eyes again before huffing out a laugh, “How subtle.”

 

Phil merely raised an eyebrow in response. Dan snorted “Obviously I’m going to go out and get stuff... just not right now.”

 

Phil sighed but couldn’t stop himself from smiling, just a bit. “If you procrastinate getting me gifts for Valentine’s Day and all the shops close I’m disowning you as a boyfriend.” Phil threatened without malice.

 

Dan smiled angelically “As if you ever could. Anyway speaking of remembering things, are gonna go out without a coat? It’s supposed to rainy heavily later.”

 

Phil peered out the window, the sun wasn’t beating down, but the clouds handing in the sky looked fluffy and white. “Think I’ll chance it, those clouds look less threatening than me before morning coffee.” Phil pointed out the window to them.

 

Dan shrugged, “s’pose you’re right, I’ll see you later anyway, when you get back I think I’ll go out.” Dan stated.

 

“What why?” Phil frowned, if they both had to go out usually it was at the same time so they’d be home together when they each got back.

 

Dan looked sheepish as he moved from foot to foot.

“It’s just I’d like to spend a bit of time apart-”

 

Phil’s smile dropped,

 

“-so that tonight will feel more special!” Dan finished in a rush, causing Phil perk up again.

 

“Oh thank God, I thought I’d done something awful!” Phil said relief present in his voice.

 

“You muppet.” Dan shook his head fondly. “Go out and get your sappy Valentines stuff so I have enough time to get mine later.” He said pushing Phil towards the door.

 

“Okay, see you later!”

 

*****

 

Phil got halfway to the shops, when the heavens opened and it started to bucket down with rain. Of course throughout the duration of his journey he’d noticed the gathering clouds, even stoped to admire them swirling together. But it seemed that one moment they were the texture of light fluffy snowflakes, and the next darker than the night sky in london when you couldn’t see the stars. 

 

As big fat drops start to pummel the ground, Phil gritted his teeth and pushed on. Water slid down his nose, plastered his hair to his face, and soaked through his shoes in a matter of moments. Moving as quickly as he could in the wet weather, and taking every opportunity to stay dry, Phil finally arrived at the shop. He leaned over and panted for a second taking shelter against the wall under the awning. He felt alright after a moment, shopping for chocolate and gifts happened to be one of the things he enjoys, even if it’s usually online and he’s being forced to go out this time. However when Phil stood up he glanced through the window and instantly knew something wasn’t right, none of the lights in the small shopping complex were on, hope drained away from him as he takes in the dimly lit rooms, void of customers.

 

No, no, no not today! The shop couldn’t be closed today!? What shop clothes on Valentine’s Day?! Its not a real holiday! That’s cruel!

 

Phil had just walked a few blocks in the rain and gotten totally soaked only to then have to find somewhere else to go shopping.

 

The rain, seeming to hear his suffering, drummed harder on the corrugated tin roof above him.

 

Sighing he pulled out his phone and texted Dan, explaining what happened.

In typical Dan fashion, he put excessive lines worth of

 

“HAHA’s” as his response.

Phil retaliated with an angry emoji. Dan, once over his annoying reaction, replied saying Phil should come home get a coat and then go shopping with Dan, as he’d already checked that his shopping complex was open.

 

And anyway, they could go into different shops, the gift could still be kept a surprise. Phil scrubbed a hand down his face, and then looked out into the pouring rain. He tucked his phone back into his pocket, doing his best to keep it as protected from drowning as possible. He waited for the rain to let up, at least a little bit, before jumping back into it.

 

*****

 

When Phil pushes open the front door, and tumbles into the apartment panting and sweating, he leans heavily against the wood closing his eyes to slow his racing heart. His moment of peace is of course broken when Dan rounds the corner, Phil bleary opens his eyes and watches as Dan’s eyes move from the puddle on the floor his trainers are making, up to his jeans which will be hell to get off now as the material will want to stay vacuum sealed to his skin. Up to his sweater which is so water logged it’s own weight is making it hang off his body, and then further to his face, which is shiny with water, and his hair so sopping he may as well have come out of the shower.

 

Dan’s eyes lock on Phil’s unimpressed gaze, his mouth twitches once, twice.

 

Phil groans rolling his eyes.

 

“You can laugh.” He says in resignation, even as he’s pouting and looking up through his lashes. As soon as he says it Dan’s lip trembles and he bursts out cackling, throwing his head back as peel after peel of laughter rocks through him. Dan is actually shaking crossing his arms to try and keep it together.

 

Against his will, Phil feels the corners of his own mouth threatening to give way to giggles, and before he can stop himself he’s joining in. Bowing his head forward at the stupid, ridiculousness of his situation. As Phil begins to calm down, he gasps out between chuckles,

 

“Why- are we even- laughing at this?”

 

“I- don’t- know.”

 

Dan chokes out, as his own laughter tapers off, until he’s just grinning widely at Phil. Phil has to admit that he’s smiling straight back.

 

“Go get dry you dork.” Dan smirks fondly.

 

“Yeah, okay.” Phil manages tugging off his shoes at the door. He stumbles past Dan upstairs to get dried off.

 

*****

 

“I’ve called a cab.” Dan calls to Phil, as the other stumbles downstairs again, his hair is still wet as he hadn’t properly dried it, just run it over with a towel. As Phil joins him at the bottom of the stairs he reaches over and ruffles Phil’s damp hair. “You know, just to be safe.” He winks.

 

“Stop being so damn smug, no-one likes an ‘I told your so’” Phil grumbles pouting.

 

Dan just smiles innocently “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

 

“You know exca-” Phils cut off abruptly by the cab arriving and Dan shoots him another mischievous smirk,

 

“Sorry Phil, we don’t all act too stubborn and refuse to take a coat, so not all of us receive a very warranted ‘I told you so’” Dan says getting into the car with Phil clambering in after him.

 

“Whatever, I’ll remember this next time I tell you to do something and then who’ll be laughing?” Phil says huffily.

 

“Both of us according to today.” Dan grins at Phil

 

“Shut up.” Phil grins

 

*****

 

Phil rushes around the ground floor shop, he spends far too long searching for the perfect card, but none look good enough. In the end he goes to a different shop one that exhibits original art, and organic teas. It takes some hunting but in the back right corner he spies the perfect card, a beautiful construction that is actually very well priced for how beautiful it is.

Phil buys it and some beautiful chocolates that look so good Phil almost wants to open them right now and eat one, but in the end he decides that he can hold out for a hour or two. After all, Dan is unlikely to do anything other than insist they eat them together tonight, because otherwise Phil will just eat them all himself.

 

Swinging his bag as he walks out of the shop, Phil settles himself against a pillar outside and texts Dan to explain where he is, and pulls out Dan’s card, he may as well get started on brainstorming what to write.

 

Phil has only written ‘Dear Dan’ in the card when someone grabs it from him,

 

“Hey!”

 

Phil exclaims his gaze flying up to meet that of the cards snatcher. Phil’s mouth is open to protest expecting Dan to have snuck up on him, however he is greeted with the sight of a complete stranger.

It’s a man glaring at Phil’s card.

 

“A card, for a boy... this is your card? Pathetic she hasn’t even written anything to you, just left you with what’s printed.” The man says with scorn.

 

Phil’s eyes are blown wide at the incredible blunt rudeness from the man, but Phil also knew that the best way to deal with impolite people was to act as positive as possible. Phil pulled himself together took a breath and smiled as widely as he could.

 

“Actually it’s not for me, it’s for my boyfriend Dan.”

 

Phil felt proud for getting it all out and stared confidently into the man’s eyes. The guy instantly seem to become furious, as he stepped well into Phil’s space making him feel uncomfortable.

 

“You have a boyfriend? I should have known. You look just like all of those gross fags in the media these days. Well this is what I I think of your disgusting ways.”

 

The man dropped Dan’s incomplete card to the floor and ground it with his heel until it crumpled. Phil was frozen his mind flashing back to high school.

 

*****

 

Dan was walking to where Phil said he was waiting outside, a cheery bounce in his step. He had decided to get some extra things since Phil had had such a rough time earlier today, even if he had seemed to cheer up by the time they had gotten to the shop. However the prance instantly left Dan, as he rounded the pillar and saw a man glaring at Phil. Dan heard Phil speaking proudly

 

“...for my boyfriend Dan.”

 

Dan smiled widely at that, but the smile fell as he advanced and had the threats the man had made on Phil, before crushing what looked to be Phil’s card into the ground. Dan looked to Phil’s frozen stance his shoulders tense, pressing back into the pillar despite the fact that he looked to be the same height as this man, he had curled in on himself enough so he appeared much smaller.

 

That’s when Dan snapped. Phil looked well frightened and that was the biggest cause of Dan’s anger. Dan arrived at Phil’s side, feeling the itch of rage under his skin, but just managing to rain in for Phil.

 

“Hey Phil, how are you?” Dan asked, focusing completely on Phil helped him to put genuine concern into his words.

 

“I’m, – I’m really excited to get back and watch TV.”

 

Phil said not taking his eyes off the man. Dan cursed internally, sucking air in between his teeth. See after being to so many awards shows, parties and events, they had developed a specific code in order to express things without being too obvious.

 

The words Phil had just said... yeah they weren’t good.

 

It basically translated to; ‘I’m really not good, get me out of here before I breakdown.’

On hearing it Dan turned to the man, for once grateful of his height, he stood tall, squared his shoulders and crossed his arms doing his best to flex some of the muscle defined there.

 

He thanked himself fervently for doing the seven hours of exercise a week he’d been keeping up, and frankly, the fact it had finally shown. Dan shifted pressing his side to Phil’s. Ordinarily the other would have relaxed into him, but Dan could feel how Phil simply stayed tense.

 

The man, eye level with Phil, had a handlebar moustache, patchy hair, and dark mean eyes. Dan couldn’t stand how he’d talked to Phil.

 

“Well if that’s the case, we should be going then.” Dan replied, his gaze fixed dangerously on the man in front of them. The man was still glaring at Phil who was still attempting to make himself as small as possible.

 

No one had been outwardly homophobic towards Phil in real life since school, and he was definitely being reminded of that now. The boys had mostly been around his height or shorter but they were much more physical than him… And hadn’t been afraid to use that to their advantage.

He remembered the image of a circle of heads crowding above him, they had kicked him until he curled up in a ball. Perhaps worse was the taunting, and constant cruel words that he could still recall to this day.

It was because of this that he’d receded, backing into his shell.

 

Once a relatively chatty person with a decent amount of friends in primary school, Phil had lost most of his confidence, to the point he suffered from low self esteem.

It had taken years of work, of filming videos where he could properly express himself, to gain that confidence back. To finally feel like he could be proud of himself, and yet all it took were three minutes with some random homophobic idiot and Phil was right back to curling up in his shell.

 

Phil felt tears stinging the backs of his eyes, why couldn’t he just stand up for himself? Why couldn’t he think of a single retort or witty comeback? It wasn’t fair!

Everything was made worse because he was in public, Phil hated any confrontation, and his anxiety over getting into bad situations while in public was kicking in.

 

The man sneered at Dan joining Phil. “Need your fag boyfriend to come save you?” The man mocked cruelly.

 

Dan saw when Phil started to go into real panic mode. Not the panic mode where he paced up and down, not when he fidgeted with his hands and ended up doing the weird forward hand thing, nor when he ran his hands through his hair too much.

No this was the fearful panic filled expression Dan saw more rarely.

The “Dan please help me I can’t handle this situation” look, the “Dan I don’t know what to do!”, the “Dan, please think of something!... Dan something is really wrong!” face.

 

So Dan intervened.

 

“Excuse you.” Dan seethed. “How dare you specifically seek out someone to hurl stupid bullshit slurs at. How dare you go over to someone clearly happy and wanting to spend some time with someone that they love, and ruin it for them.” Dan’s eyes were fixed on the idiot in front of him, full on glaring at such a disrespectful person.

 

“If I was to sink as low as you, I’d be punching you right now. But I’m not as low as you, I’m better than that. And I’m going to take my wonderful, amazing, boyfriend as far away from you as possible, and hope I never see you again.” Dan growled, gently wrapping an arm around Phil’s waist and waiting for him to take a shaky step forward, before falling into step with Phil, and carefully guiding him away from the horrible man.

 

Dan left his arm there until they reached an area secluded enough he was sure no one would over hear them. (The last thing they needed was more stress from people overhearing).

One Look at Phil’s downcast expression, and glazed eyes told Dan to keep talking to a minimum.

 

“Hey Phil do you want me to call a cab?” Dan asked softly.

 

Phil shook his head slowly

 

“Wanna walk.” he croaked still refusing to look Dan in the eyes.

 

*****

 

The walk home was mostly a blur to Phil.

He realised when he got the apartment key out of his pocket that he didn’t have his bag of stuff for Dan. His heart panged at the memory of Dan’s card being crushed into the ground. He almost burst into tears at the thought that in his panic he had dropped the bag, but his eyes darted around, noticing it held carefully in Dan’s hand.

 

He hadn’t even noticed when Dan took it.

 

Sniffing Phil managed to open the door stumbling over as he almost fell into the apartment. Dan placed the bags on the table by the door, and then gently pushed it shut with a soft click. Turning back to Phil, who hadn’t moved from his spot, where he was stood with his arms around himself, shaking slightly.

 

Sensing Dan’s gaze Phil carefully met his gaze, with tears gleaming in his eyes. Dan opened his arms in invitation, and Phil didn’t think before he was running, barrelling into Dan’s chest, jumping up to him so Dan was cradling him. Dan would ordinarily make a joke about Phil being heavy, but with Phil crying into his chest, this really wasn’t the time. Right now he had to get them comfortable.

 

Dan carried Phil into the lounge, sitting on the sofa, he simply rocked Phil back and forth until the tears begin to dry up.

 

Promising to be back quick, he gathered up all the blankets and duvets and dumped them on the sofa next to Phil, who Dan had left with a box of tissues to dry his face with. Dan then went into the kitchen, pulled the milk out of the fridge, got out the mugs and hot chocolate powder.

He collected both paper bags from the hall, putting them on the coffee table, and reheated some pizza in the microwave. Bringing the food and drink in, he was met with the unexpected sight of a Phil- less lounge, however as he placed the food and drink on the table he heard the toilet flush and Dan began spreading out the blankets. He turned on the telly and went straight to the classic Disney list of movies.

 

*****

 

When Phil walked into the lounge, feeling better after crying and then splashing his face with water, he was met with Dan dimming the lights.

Phil felt a fresh weight of tears forming, but these were happy tears as he looked at the movie on screen, the cozy blankets, the presents on the table and the food prepared. Dan glanced up and met his gaze, a content smile breaking out over his face.

 

“Thank you.” Phil whispered.

 

Dan gave him a long look, before moving to sit on the sofa and patting the space beside him. Phil’s feet carried him over and he sank into the comfortable nest. Dan turned to face him, gently taking Phil’s hand in his own. “You don’t need to thank me Phil, it’s not a problem.” He said softly.

 

Phil’s eyes crept up to Dan’s. “Yes I do, you, you really helped me today and this…” Phil took a deep breath gesturing around them. “This is exactly what I needed.” Phil gasped out. “I need to show how much it means and appreciate it because I couldn’t repay you –”

 

“No.” Dan said swiftly cut Phil off. Phil blinked in confusion. His eyes lock onto Dan’s, which are kind but unrelenting, there’s clearly a message held in them.

 

“But I –“ Phil began,

 

“Phil,” Dan cut him off again in the most considerate way possible. “Phil this isn’t a debate, we are equal, I definitely like you expressing your appreciation, but not because you feel like you owe me something. You’re not in debt to me, you have your own way of supporting me when I have times like you did today, and I am so thankful for it. I wouldn’t change one bit of how we have each other’s back’s.” Dan took a deep breath, fixing Phil with an intense stare.

 

“We help, love and support each other. We don’t owe, impress or change for the other.

I do for you what you do for me, whether we approach the problem the same way or completely different we want the same outcome and we do it for the same outcome, to make us happy.” Dan finished.

 

Tears were rolling down Phil’s cheeks and he leapt across the sofa, cuddling into Dan’s chest and kissing all over his face. With every peck to Dan’s skin he mumbled ‘I love you’ between each one. Dan chuckled fondly underneath him and eventually pulled Phil down to bury his nose in raven hair. Breathing in, Dan’s laughed deeply again,

 

“I love you too, you beautiful being”. Dan rumbled into Phil’s hair. Their breaths synced and Dan pulled the rest of the blanket cave over them. He turned on the movie and they settled down for a cuddly evening filled with love.

 

*****

 

And perhaps there would come times in the future when Phil froze up in difficult social situations, but Dan would always be there as support. In the future Phil would be faced with a similar situation to today’s, but would manage to handle it without Dan.

This would leave him happy, but not quite as happy as when he sharing it with Dan.

 

And next week when Dan hadn’t been out of his room all day, not even for food, Phil would knock at the door. He’d go in to find Dan lying listlessly in bed, and then proceed to play Winnie the Pooh on Dan’s laptop, and make warm drinks. He’d barrage Dan with the worst puns that would eventually coax a chuckle out of Dan, because of how awful it was, or because of how excited Phil looked, or most likely for no reason other than Phil’s determined pout when Dan failed to laugh.

 

When they curled up around each other neither had ever felt more loved.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok hello, welcome to the end notes. I sound crazy, great start.  
> Ok hi, hey, what’s up? So I’m doing my final year of high school this year so I’m probably not going to be writing that much (sad face) but I have soooooo many ideas that it will literally be like about 9 months o not much and then you’ll be slapped in the face with writing (or at least that is my hope).  
> What you just read up there ^^^ is kind of my worst writing tbh, I haven’t checked it well, I could do more editing but I just want this piece out of my drafts tbh. So you’re getting it.  
> I do have a much more recent piece I started this year, It’s my best and longest work and I’ve put a lot of effort in so if you want to know when that’s happening or being posted, you can follow my tumblr officaltrashrat.tumblr.com, (as that is literally my most active social media), or if you don’t want to do that I guess you could come check my ao3 or subscribe...? Idk do what you want.  
> Anyway that’s all I have to say, I appreciate anyone who reads any of my fics and while I’m super busy with life and trying to be mentally healthy, I am not leaving this fandom don’t worry! I guess you could say I’m going on a slight highatus (like d&p) except mine will almost definitely finish by December. So yeah! See you groovy people when I see you!  
> Lots of love <3


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